


Always Read and Follow the Label

by Wordsdear



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, there is a little bit of angst in this but I promise it is fluff in the purest sense, this is the most self indulgent thing i have ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-14 21:35:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13598865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wordsdear/pseuds/Wordsdear
Summary: The crew reach Raftel. The only thing standing in their way is a simple door but things quickly go haywire





	Always Read and Follow the Label

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Peppernine for reading it over for me!

They had finally made it. Raftel. With the cliff face looming overhead, suddenly all those years of fighting, crying, and laughing felt very small before it. Even Usopp, brave warrior of the sea that he was, felt his knees shake a little. This was the end. The last island. The X that marks the spot. What could possibly be up there, that was worth all that? If he was really honest with himself, he still had no idea what the One Piece was. A mountain of gold? “Made you look” ponoglyphed into a wall? A doodle of a sea gull with Gol D Roger’s autograph at the bottom? Nothing could surprise him anymore. He looked over at Robin, she probably had a better idea. Even with the wind splashing the stinging seawater into the crew’s eyes, she kept looking forward, unblinking.

Dropping his goggles down, he scanned along the cliff face. Nothing. Observation Haki had the same result. The island was dead, no wildlife to speak of. Just trees, and a shit ton of rocks. Maybe Roger had just been a nature lover?

The Sunny dropped anchor and the crew stepped off, no point leaving anyone behind to guard the ship. No one was chasing them anymore. Sanji could have easily skywalked up, and Luffy could have stretched or rocketed himself up a good distance. Instead, they took their time, climbing up makeshift foothold by makeshift foot hold, accepting Usopp and Franky’s super rock climbing equipment without a word. There was no rush. The One Piece wasn’t going anywhere.

The vegetation growing along the cliff face making it hard to see where an opening might be hidden, but after an hour of climbing, Robin spotted it. A wall of ivy that moved at a touch. Behind it, lay a small opening with a low ceiling. The more hightely fortunate of the crew, namely, Jinbe, Brook and Franky had to duck in order to get in. They hunched over awkwardly, trying to scan the room. Not a cave, a room. It seemed to be carved out of the cliff face, clean straight lines. At least that was the gist of what he could manage to read peeking over Robin’s notebook as she scribbled in it. She let out a small gasp, and the rest of the crew having only just managed to squeeze into the room, saw what she had spotted. A ponoglyph. Unlike any of the others they had seen before, this one had a single simple symbol on it and a handle. A door?

“What does it say Robin?” Even as the question left his lips, Luffy was already pushing on the handle.

“Luffy, stop what if it is booby trapped!!” Usopp squealed and immediately regretted it, but old habits die hard. Roger wouldn’t have been out to kill them… probably. But Roger hadn’t made Raftel had he? There was no telling if the Ancient Kingdom, or whatever had made Raftel, had their well being in mind.

The ponedoor (Usopp’s copyright, do not steal) stayed closed. Luffy whined and pulled his hand back.

“GUM GUM KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE?”

The multiple fists slamming into the Ponedoor did nothing. A bit of dust fell from the edges but it continued to stand in their path, an immovable object.

The unstoppable force tried again, this time politely knocking. Perhaps for the first time in his life.

“Luffy, anyone in there would of been stuck for over two decades. That’s impossible”

Brook coughed

“Sorry Brook”

Ignoring them, Luffy had given up on the polite approach and had begun slamming his weight against the Ponedoor

“OPPEEEEEEEEEENNNNN!! GIVE ME MEAT!”

Who needs the One Piece, their captain wanted meat. Out of the corner of his eye, Usopp could see Sanji rolling up his sleeves and grumbling about having something in the slow cooker already.

“So Nico Robin, what does it say” Franky asked, pushing up his sunglasses

Robin was still writing furiously in her notebook.

“A minute, if you don’t mind”

So they waited, in silence. Or at least partial silence. Luffy had given up trying to push it open and was leaning against the Ponedoor whining

Exactly a minute later, Robin set down her pencil and began to speak

“To strain abnormally. Is one definition at least. But it is a little more complicated than that.”

“What? So is it saying we came all this way for nothing?”

“I do have a strainer back on the Sunny”

“Yeah Shit Cook, I am sure the door is giving you cooking tips”

As they squabbled, Robin looked up from her notebook

“Perhaps some more detail might help. Kind of word association?”

Not waiting for a response she continued

“Attract. Tear. Cull”

“Cull?” Luffy’s finger was already up his nose

“To select from a large quantity. Or the selective slaughter of wild animals. The poneglyph appears to be telling us, to die”

 

Usopp gulped, “What a friendly door”

“That’s a lot for one symbol” Franky stepped forward tracing his large hands over the etching in the Ponedoor. He pushed on it lightly, nothing.

 

“It is a fairly simple symbol, the only problem is it has quite a number of definitions. Usually I could infer from context, but here, just isolated like this, it could mean anything”

“Anything? Flowers? Knock three times and spin around?” Usopp asked hopefully

“What does it sound like?” Luffy demanded 

Robin tilted her head to the side and laughed “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone’s ever really thought about what Poneglyphs sounded like before. Was it only a written language and they used something else for day to day use?”

She shook her head and closed the notebook

“Perhaps the door is just telling us to die” and she laughed again

“Die huh? Gear second!”

Luffy stood up turning to face the Ponedoor, steam billowing from his arms as he pushed against it. Still nothing.

“Aww, I was hoping ‘cause I lose years doing that, that it might make it open”

“Luffy-san, if you might permit. As a dead man, I might be able to open it?”

Brook stepped forward and after a nod from Luffy, he too tried pushing against it. Nothing. After another nod from Luffy, Brook’s soul left his body, only to rebound off the Ponedoor with a wince

“It does not appear to be sea stone, yet I can not seem to pass through.“

“A mystery door”, Luffy nodded sagely

Somewhere closer to the entrance, Jinbe spoke, 

“What if we all tried pushing it? Maybe it is something we have to do as a crew? We are all so focused on the second possible definition of cull, we are ignoring the first. ‘To select from a large quantity’. Out of all the people we met along the way, we formed this crew. Maybe that has something to do with it?” 

Jinbe blushed

Gathering together, they pushed

“SUPPPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR”

Still nothing

“Maybe it is just locked?” Nami stepped forward, squeezing her way closer to the Ponedoor. She ran her fingers along the face of it for any whisper thin keyholes. She stepped away. Not a crack.

“Robin, could you give us that word association thing one more time? But slower?”

“Attract. To draw close”

Without a word, a large magnet began to raise from Franky’s shoulders. The rest of the crew stood in silence as Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy danced around the cyborg, cheering, The Ponedoor stayed closed

“Worth a shot” The magnet lowered

Robin still reading her notebook, “Tear. To rip or cut”

Zoro drew his blades “Three Sword Style, Secret Skill: Three Thousand Worlds”

When the dust settled, the Ponedoor was still very much intact

“And we already went over cull. Perhaps the poneglyph wants us to fight amongst ourselves, so only the strongest remains to open it. Luffy kills us all, and gets the One Piece. What a tragic ending” Robin let out a soft giggle

“Maybe we all don’t have to die” Usopp said to himself

At that moment, Zoro and Usopp had almost the same idea. One of them was right, and one of them was wrong. Unfortunately, Usopp was just a little too slow.

Drawing the Wado Ichimonji, Zoro pointed it at his stomach.

“I AM THE GREAT CAPTAIN USOPP!” 

The scream echoed through the room and for half a second, Zoro hesitated. He stole a glance at Usopp, who promptly swallowed a small pellet.

BOOM

The room shook and Usopp fell. Zoro’s swords followed shortly after, tossed to the ground in the desperate rush for Usopp

“Usopp!!”

Coughing up red, Usopp dragged himself closer to the Ponedoor. With red stained hands he reached for the handle, and pulled.

It opened. A crack, just enough for the golden light to pour out, bathing Usopp’s prone body in its light.

No one turned to peek into the light; the crew’s eyes were fixed on Usopp.

Shoving Zoro aside, Luffy was on him in a second. Pulling Usopp up by his overalls, he gave him a light shake

“I’m the captain, not you. So no dying, got it? Captain’s orders.”

Usopp hung limp, silent.

“Damn you!” Luffy pulled back his fist

Chopper pushed Luffy aside onto Zoro, and Usopp fell back to the ground

“What did you do Usopp? What was that? Talk to me”

As Chopper patted him down, pressing his ear to Usopp’s now heaving chest, Usopp sat up a little, calling out

“What are you guys waiting for? The One Piece is right there!”

No one moved

“Robin! The Rio Poneglyph is beyond that door. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine”

Robin's back was to the light, her eyes fixed on Usopp. She shook her head.

“Usopp…” Chopper began but Usopp pushed him away. There was a proper dogpile forming beside the downed sniper

“Just go!”

Luffy having managed to wiggle his way to the top of the reindeerpile, crossed his legs and frowned, “I am not going anywhere. This isn’t how I wanted to become Pirate King. Not worth it.”

Sanji sniffed. Then sniffed again harder. He marched over to Usopp and grabbed his stained hands. Smearing the red on his own, he brought it to his mouth and licked

“Sanji? What the hell are you doing!?”

The cook lashed out, kicking Usopp in the stomach, who groaned and rolled away

“Shitty ketchup, you shitty long nosed bastard! What were you thinking?”

“Usopp, did you just open a magic door with ketchup? I am not sure if I am impressed or angry to be honest” Franky mused

“Just following instructions. It says it right there. Pull. Right, Robin?”

Robin laughed and folded her arms. Usopp squealed

Still smiling, Robin asked “Was the ketchup really necessary?”

“It was just in case I was wrong. If it wasn’t pull, then it might really of been some kind of devil fruit magic mumbo jumbo. If Brook couldn’t open it, being dead and all, maybe it isn’t the death or blood sacrifice. Not that Brook has any blood.”

Brook said nothing

“So if it wasn’t that, maybe, it was the feeling behind it? Being willing to sacrifice yourself for your crew or the feeling the crew gets when you do? I don’t know, I wasn’t really thinking. Don’t yell at me, Zoro was ready to stab himself and I am pretty sure he didn’t realize he needed to pull the damn thing”

Brook made his way over to Usopp, bending down close to his face and saying in a dangerously calm voice

“For a moment there, I thought I was going to lose my crew, again. Death is not something to make light of, or play around with. Do you understand?” Brook stood up again to his full height, squishing his Afro against the ceiling.

“That’s my job, YOHOHOHOHOHO!”

Usopp stood up, trying to brush off some of the ketchup from his hands but only managed to further redden his overalls

“Sorry guys. I should have just said something, I guess.”  
Usopp laughed. The crew did not. He kept going, trying and failing to keep that light tone in his voice

“But where’s the fun in that? I’m a liar after all, the great captain Usopp doesn’t do anything by halves”

Luffy was still seated on top of the pirate pile, his own little throne, turning his straw hat slowly in his hands over and over

“Come on Luffy, what are you waiting for? I’m fine, so let’s do this! The One Piece is waiting. What do you say, Pirate King?”

“No.”

“Why not?!”

“ ’Cause it is boring. Pull to open, where is the adventure in that? And I didn’t even get to open it. You took my thing, Usopp”

Usopp shook his head, his Captain could be so childish sometimes “Fine. I’ll just close it again and you can open it, happy?”

 

Usopp stood, leaning against the Ponedoor but even with his entire weight behind it, it remained ajar. 

“So where does that leave us now, Luffy? It is open and there isn’t much I can do about it. Are you really going to let this stupid door stop you? We came all this way and you decide to throw a tantrum?”

Luffy continued staring at his hat. Tantrum was a stretch, this wasn’t the usual Luffy hooting and hollering, he was just frowning. And silent. It was unnerving. Usopp wasn’t sure how to handle a silent Luffy.

 

“I already said I am sorry. What do you want Luffy? To sail all the back to the East Blue and start all over? Just hope the Ponedoor magically closes and nobody else gets here in the meantime? Great plan captain!”

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to throw up or pull his hair out, maybe both.

He felt something touch his shoulder and looked up at Jinbe, who frowned and said

“Breath Usopp”

He took a deep breath, in out, and glaced from Jinbe to back at the Ponedoor.

“Okay Luffy. How about this? The Ponedoor is barely open, right? I just got us started, let’s all open it. I don’t care how this door actually works, I think what Jinbe suggested earlier is right. We should all open and go in together because this is the crew you made Luffy”

Luffy grinned jumping to his feet, hat back in the proper place on his head. 

“LET’S GO!” He seemed undaunted by the fact he was standing on his swordsman and doctor. Zoro was already asleep, but sat up with a jolt at Lufy’s yell, knocking him back to the ground. Chopper still clinging to Zoro’s back also let out a shrill shriek

After unjumbling themselves, the crew stood before the Ponedoor. As Luffy bounced impatiently, one by one they placed their hands on the handle, it was tight fit and Franky had to use his little robot hands but they managed it. This was the end. 

“Jinbe, do you want to start us off?”

“Ten” Jinbe said gruffly though his blush

“Nine” Brook sang out 

“Eight” Franky somehow managed to super pose while still keeping his hold on the door

“Seven” Robin grinned

“Six” in Heavy Point, Chopper raised one hand to the ceiling, fist clenched

“Five” and Sanji took a puff of his cigarette

“Four” Usopp pumped his free arm, he was ready

“Three” Nami made the money sign with her free hand, for luck maybe?

“Two” Zoro looked over at Luffy who with a cheer yelled 

“ONE” 

They pulled, and the Ponedoor opened.

As a crew they walked inside, and the Ponedoor swung shut.


End file.
